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Welcome to this month’s Technique Blog Hop where we are “Lovely Layers” with Close To My Heart products.

If you have arrived here from Lauren Moore then you are in the right place.

If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

I love adding layers whether it’s through the use of various papers, clusters of embellishments, or stamp images. I love how layers can help create interest my artwork & I had a lot of fun creating this Lovely Layers Love Blossoms Rose Card.

I layered the red stripe Happy Heart paper over the soft pink striped Something Fierce. It helped that they were different heights & widths to allow you to see the soft pink stripe. I added some So Much Happy washi tape & layered over that with Lagoon diamond pattern from the Celebrate Mix In to go across the card. On top of that I have layered a love blossoms rose weaved through the shaker window circle die cut. At the top of the card I added a layer ofSo Much Happy washi with mint cardstock decorated with one of the decorated border thin cuts. I finished off with some loose sequins with bitty sparkles in the centre.

I also created this scrapbook layout using mostly the Happy Heart Papers.

I fussy cut the flowers & layered over the papers, added extra banner to layer over the pre-printed banners on the grid paper. I created an embellishment clusters with the scallop tag, stitched circle layered with a banner & die cut butterflies. I added layers with bits of die cut frames, tags & fussy cut out scallop to go behind the 3×4 photo placements. This is a very girly pink layout, but I loved how it turned out – now I just need to wait for my photos to be printed so I can add them.

I’d love for you to leave a comment before you head on over to Valerie Kapshato get more Lovely Layers ideas.

I hope you enjoyed what I created, as much as I enjoyed creating it and thanks so much for taking the time to check it out.

A Happy Hello and welcome aboard our I Heart Us Paper Suite, Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from Nell Ward then you are in the right place.If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you a creation which features Close To My Heart’s Featured collection I Heart Us Paper Suite

This fun vibrant paper suite has a bit of something for all occasions, there are stripes, geometric patterns, spots & tiny hearts on the paper & there are rainbows, flowers & butterflies in the cut apart sheet & compliments.

It truely is a happy paper suite & I really have enjoyed creating with it.

First I designed a flower boarder using the Cricut® Flower Market Digital Collection. I welded & sliced until I got the design I wanted & cut on white cardstok. I backed the flowers with the papers from the Heart Us Paper Suite, bar one which is a yellow from the Something Fierce.

I created some water colour in different greens & yellows. I also added in some transparent texture paste taht you cannot really see till you are close up. This was all done onto white daisy that I cut smaller to mat with the lighter side of Lagoon cardstock. I placed this cut out flower boarder onto the water colour . This formed my decorative element to my layout.

I matted the photos & added extra paper strips at the top, created a label for a little subtitle & stamped a saying from one of the stamp sets you get from the Cricut® You Are Here Collection to form my title.

Finally I added embellishments using the I Heart Us Compliments & sequins.

While there are no flowers in my photos, I was originally going to add flower photos, I thought it didn’t really matter as the photos had a lot of greenery so it was more about nature.

Over the weekend I decided to finally scrap the new born photo of my grand niece. And thought I would mix it up using some stamping as well as different alphabet stamps & different Close To My Heart Paper Suites.

I started off with the stamping using the Budding Peony Stamp + Thin Cuts (I think this will be my most used stamp set of the Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea book) and coloured in with ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Markers. I was going to reproduce the look I done on a card for the Faux Dimension with ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Markers post but scrapbook style. But well I have misplaced my Black Marker & if anyone knows where I put it, please let me know as I know its friends are missing the black being in the roll up marker case with them. So well instead of wasting time I continued on a different path.

I then started to layer papers behind my photo so I had a sense of where I could place it amongst the flowers that I had stamped. I added some I Heart Us Paper & Heart Happy Paper, as they had the pinks that went with the Peony’s that I coloured, plus the Heart Happy Paper finishes up this month & well I Heart Us Paper is the featured paper so it made sense to use these.

I also needed some contrast so found some black spotted in the Mix-in Paper but there was also a fab pink stripe on one of the z strips. In the end I added more black in other ways than using the paper.

The mixing didn’t stop at the paper, I also created a title that mixed up two alphabet stamps & some chipboard letters & the I really like how it all turned out.

The word Love if from the I Heart Us Complements (oh my I love these) & I did a bit of doodling around the heart O. I really liked how you can see some of the peony peeking through the letters. The word at (stamped with Simply Said) was stamped directly onto the page (amazed that I did not somehow drop the stamp & stuffed that up) & finished off with some clear sparkles. I fussy cut out First (stamped with Solid Classroom Alphabet) and stuck them with foam tape over a wash of shimmer and well as I had the Simply Said stamp set out I just used that to stamped Sight onto some scrap. I layered this word over some paper & vellum strips.

My final bit of mixing it up (ok ignore the accidental double stamped flower – it didn’t stamp correctly & I miss-aligned second go & it was the last flower added – always the way) was with some Die Cuts (or Thin Cuts as they are known from Close To My Heart) I used two different Fancy Tags (one of which is cut in half & the other a top 1/3rd was cut off) & I added strip that had bee decorated with one of the Decorative Borders (seriously one of my fav dies) to crate a journalling spot.

I actually replicated this circle journalling spot (without the journalling ) & added it in amongst the layers of paper I used around my photo.

Anyway I hope you like my little mixed up scrapbooking layout – it shows that all the Close To My Heart Products co-ordinate together nicely. You just need to pull out the bits & pieces to see how they work together.

You may or may not have notice something a bit different about the paper packs in the new Seasonal Expressions 1?

The paper packs no longer include a cut apart Picture My Life pocket card sheet. They now have a cut apart embellishment sheet that has a pattern printed on one side & the cut apart embellishment print on the other.

So you can use the Dinosaur themed paper & the cut apart embellishments along with the Complements to make a very Dinosaur themed paper craft item or just use the generic patterns of the paper & pull out the non themed embellishments to create something different.

This allows you to have so many more options – but what about the pocket scrapbookers?

Well they do not miss out there are fab complimenting Picture My Life™ Cards perfect for the pocket scrapbooker or if you like to make cards out these – then you love that you will not have to cut them up – unless you really want to.

Anyway I love the what Close To My Heart is now offering with the paper suites & today I want to share this scrapbook layout I created with Something Fierce, which doesn’t have any dinosaurs in sight.

I pulled out some ideas that I learnt from the Close To My Heart Album Retreat I went to in Sep 2018 & used some of the papers & embellishments from both the cut apart paper & the Complements of the Something Fierce Paper Suite to create a focus on my cute little Grand Niece.

The layout also features a number of techniques including the use of one of the decorate border thin cuts at the top & bottom, some fussy cutting pink scallops out of pattern paper, stamping and a Ballerina & clear shimmer ink wash behind the word Kid.

I raised the photo up on 3D Foam tape to allow a hidden journal block & created a pull tab with the small pink printed star cut apart embellishment.

I used a mix of Alphabet Stamps to create my title, Solid Classroom & Simply Said.

By the way, Alphabet Stamps are 35% off this month!

This is a great layout to use scraps as your strips of paper , you do not have to go across completely behind the photo, if they are too small cut them in half & only have what you need pocking out of each side of the photo. I did this with a couple of the washi like sticker strips & one of the cut apart printed paper strips.

I had fun creating this layout & been dying to share it since early Jan when I created it.

Hello to all my crafty friends

Welcome to 2019 & hopefully a fun creative year. To kick start the creativity I thought I would share some ways to create a Shabby Chic look with Close To My Heart products.

The Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea book started a couple of days ago & one of the new product ranges is the Feels Like Home collection, this collection has a shabby chic feel to it already so it makes it super simple to create the look.

While the texture paste was drying I cut out the fringe border that is in the Decorative Borders thin cuts from Charcoal cardstock and stamped both the Budding Peony and the Butterfly onto white daisy cardstock in Charcola ink & coloured in with ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ markers to lighten the colour on the butterfly I used the Colorless Blender Marker which actually removes colour not really blends.

It was all put together with some white ribbon – I think it turned out to be a very pretty shabby chic card.
I hope you enjoyed what I created, as much as I enjoyed creating it and thanks so much for taking the time to check it out.

A Happy Hello, Happy New Year and welcome aboard our Card Captions January Stamp of the Month, Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from Kylie McLoughlin – Creating with Kylie then you are in the right place.
If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

This stamp set is full of Sentiments, perfect for cardmaking & there is just so many ways you can make these sentiments be used as part of a background design, the inside of your card or just to quickly add a little sentiment.

The first card I want to share is how quickly you can stamp one of the sentiments & add to a card for any occasion. I just stamped Happy Birthday onto a strip of card & added it to this cricket themed birthday card. I used Something Fierce Paper for the blue sky & green grass. The Cricket players were cut on my Cricut from a design I uploaded.

My next card shows how you can use the sayings as the background of the card.It is like creating your background paper but also adds a feature to the card design. On this version I have used a lighter colour (Sage) & stamped the Thank You sentiments across the bottom & created used the word Fairy instead of Very from the Fairy Bread International stamp set.

I used the same idea on the next card design where I stamped Happy Birthday across the background. To soften the look I used vellum. I cut a small strip from the front of the card & added some Feels Like Home Paper to the inside & the beautiful Budding Peony stamp, uncoloured to complete the look.

I hope you enjoyed my ideas on how to use this great stamp set. This exclusive D-size (S1901) Card Captions – January Stamp of the Month set – only available in January can be yours for just $8.25 AUD/ $7.50 NZD, when you place an order of $82.50 AUD/$75 NZD or more!

Contact your CTMH consultant to place an order. If you do not have a consultant, I would love for you to place an order with me.

I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next creative stop; Doreen Watkins.

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What it is all about

Life is worth capturing, sharing, remembering, documenting, celebrating & decorating.
Come along & discover your creativity , while I discover mine. I am an independent consultant with Close To My Heart and I create with Close To My Heart Products.